In marking my shows, I've not bothered to claim any of the festival soundchecks. At the time I write this, phish.net says 46 phishnetters were here for this one. While I can't call B.S. on any of you, I do wonder how many were actually in the concert grounds (the large enclosure of the What Stage). I was working for one of the vendors that weekend (also blessedly enabling me to tour from Fenway>Bonnaroo), and we were setting up the What Stage booth that afternoon. The bossman knew the security in charge of clearing the grounds, so we were allowed to stay. Sweet!

Admittedly a bluegrass-heavy set, but it just felt good to be in on a soundcheck for the first time (in 115 shows). This was only my third time hearing Ocelot (we'd skipped Knoxville to get to Bonnaroo), and it cemented itself as my favorite of the new tunes. Ended up being more special considering they decided not to play it for either night of Bonnaroo.

I'd *just* finished setting up camp when the first notes rang out. Thankfully there was a large space and small hill by the VIP entrance gate to the What stage that you could see straight to the stage from. The band was far away across the field, but you could see them and the music sounded great. There was probably 50 or so people collected at that entry gate, and from what I could tell many more over by the arch entry gate. It's just a soundcheck, but it was so unexpected and it still is one of my fondest memories of the festival.

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